Zheng Xun pressed pause and enlarged the screen.
He wanted to see clearly how many players had entered the instance.
Besides Captain Xiao Tao, the Locust Sound instance had Vice Guild Leader Xiao Jun, two male team members, and one female team member this time.
Five people in total.
Just as in Zheng Xun's simulation, the first NPC they encountered after entering Locust Sound Middle School was the security guard, Old Li.
After Li Yuechu told them about three bizarre murders, Tao Xueqing suggested that the group take the night shift.
Happy to have someone cover for him, Old Li took his enamel mug and left.
Tao Xueqing then led the others into the teaching building.
Once inside, the first person the Singing Sparrow Second Team saw was a female NPC named Xiaoyin. She served as a guide in the instance, much like Old Li, filling them in on the story's background.
Though Locust Sound was an A-rank instance, its monsters weren't high-level. After dealing with two headless vengeful spirits, they made it to Class 5, Grade 11, the first crime scene Old Li had mentioned.
The boss of the Class 5 classroom scene was a male teacher surnamed Xu, who had died after jumping from a building.
As the first boss to appear, he wasn't very strong. One of the male team members cut him down with a single slash.
The second scene was a storage room at the end of the corridor, guarded by a security guard surnamed Feng. The monster's terrifying appearance made the female team member scream, which somehow provoked it and sent it into a frenzy.
Even so, its strength had limits, and Xiao Jun and Tao Xueqing joined forces to destroy it.
The third scene was on the school rooftop.
All five survived to the final stage. As long as they got through it, they could leave with their rewards.
After a brief conversation, Xiaoyin told them that the girl surnamed Liang had jumped from that very spot and ended her life.
Tao Xueqing guessed that, under normal circumstances, the girl would be the final boss. All they had to do now was wait for the boss to be triggered.
But somewhere along the way, something went wrong. The world turned upside down, and all five fell from the rooftop into a hidden corridor.
The corridor was a bizarre, kaleidoscopic maze, with purple and red overlapping and black patterns moving across the walls like living eyes. Only Captain Xiao Tao and Vice Guild Leader Xiao could barely hold on; the other three were down on one knee, their faces twisted in pain.
The hidden boss in the corridor suddenly appeared and bit off one team member's head. Before the other two could even cry out, it killed them as well.
Losing three team members in a single instant caught Tao Xueqing and Xiao Jun off guard.
Not only was the boss too fast for them to make out its form, but it could also hide inside the eyes on the walls at any time.
The two who remained were utterly unable to strike back.
The video replay stopped there. The progress bar had reached the end, and when Zheng Xun tried to watch what came next, he found there was nothing more.
"What happened after that?"
he asked Xiao Jun.
Xiao Jun brought over a cup of coffee and sat down across from him.
His expression was grim.
Recalling the scene, even Vice Guild Leader Xiao, known for his composure, lost some of it.
"The camera was destroyed, so nothing after that was recorded. I was there, but I couldn't tell reality from illusion at the time. I can only tell you what I remember."
Xiao Jun said that he and Tao Xueqing had used up every piece of equipment they had, all to fight a hidden boss whose shadow they couldn't even catch.
Both were experienced and harbored no naive fantasies. They realized then that the corridor was definitely a high-difficulty side route, and the boss was so far above their level that they had no way to fight it.
Both had prepared themselves not to make it out alive, but each hoped the other would survive. Xiao Jun threw all his stamina potions to Tao Xueqing, while Tao Xueqing took an even more drastic step.
She used a teleportation card to forcibly send Xiao Jun out of the instance.
Teleportation cards were rare purple cards that could forcibly transport a player with critically low health out of an instance. Songbird had two in total, one held by each of its two team captains, so that in a life-or-death situation like this, at least the captain's life could be saved.
But Captain Xiao Tao chose to save her team member, leaving the chance of survival to Xiao Jun.
Xiao Jun was already unconscious when he was teleported out. After forty-eight hours of emergency treatment at the hospital, it took another four or five days before he woke up.
After escaping death, Xiao Jun began putting together a new team to enter Locust Sound again. Zheng Xun burst onto the scene at just that moment, and Xiao Jun immediately set his sights on him.
"Zheng Xun," Xiao Jun said, showing a hint of weariness now that he was away from the media, "there's no one else here, so I won't beat around the bush. The Locust Sound instance has cast a huge psychological shadow over everyone in Songbird. Now we not only have to find Xueqing, but also dispel that shadow, or the guild will fall apart."
Su Hairong and Cheng Jie stood silently to one side, their expressions equally grave.
"It's very hard to put together a new team for the instance. As vice guild leader, I can't force anyone. After all, everyone was watching the Locust Sound livestream, and everyone witnessed their teammates die. I'm going back in no matter what, and Cheng Jie will come with me. Hairong has to stay outside and help the guild leader keep the guild running."
"Vice Guild Leader," Su Hairong said, suddenly straightening up, disbelief on her face. "You never told me about this arrangement. Didn't we agree that the three of us would go in together and find one or two more people to join us?"
"Yes, but the guild leader and I discussed it, and it won't work. We can't put all the guild's key members on the line in there."
"Then Cheng Jie can help the guild leader, and I'll go into the instance."
"No way!" Cheng Jie objected at once. "Sister Rong, you know I can't do anything except fight!"
Before Su Hairong could say anything, Zheng Xun nodded in agreement.
"I agree with that."
"Who the hell asked you?!"
Sensing that the mood had turned, Zheng Xun, the ruthless, coldhearted instance-clearing machine, scratched his cheek with his index finger and looked at the other three.
"Could you hold off on the sentimental stuff for now? Let me say a couple of things."
Xiao Jun regained his composure.
"Go ahead."
"First, tell me, can you reenter an instance after failing it?"
In response to Zheng Xun's question, Xiao Jun explained that all instances in the White Tower disappeared automatically only after being cleared. If players failed to clear one, it would close automatically and wait for the next players to enter.
"Doesn't the instance reset after a failure? I mean, even if you want to find the bodies..."
"Hidden side routes take longer to reset."
"Any proof?"
"We found a forum post about someone's experience and got in touch with them. They said they'd entered the hidden route of the same instance twice in a row, and found a ring in a room that they'd accidentally dropped there the first time."
"Okay, then suppose we find the bodies. How do we get them out of the instance? From my last experience, only surviving players can leave an instance."
"Don't worry about that. We've prepared an item."
Once Zheng Xun had asked everything he wanted to ask, he closed his eyes and wrapped himself in the blanket.
"Then I have no problem with it."
"If you need anything..."
"I do," Zheng Xun said, half his face covered by the blanket. "I need a very long sleep."
After saying that, he fell silent.
He slept for a full day and night.
Zheng Xun didn't know how he'd arrived at the Singing Sparrow Guild. When he woke up, he was looking at an unfamiliar ceiling.
The clock on the wall showed four in the morning.
A few steps away, Cheng Jie slept soundly in a single bed.
Zheng Xun got out of bed, walked over, and pulled Cheng Jie's blanket off with a merciless iron hand.
"Up, up! Get everyone awake. You're coming into the instance with me!"